


On Telepath Licenses

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [89]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Backstory, Business Division, Essays, Fix-It, Gen, Psi Corps, Telepath Law (Babylon 5), Worldbuilding, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 10:20:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13409193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: Do telepaths in the Corps carry a separate ID?What's the difference between being registered with the Corps and being registered as a commercial telepath?The prologue ofBehind the Glovesishere- please read!





	On Telepath Licenses

**Author's Note:**

> What is this series? Where are the acknowledgements, table of contents and universe timelines? See [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590).
> 
> If you like _Behind the Gloves_ and would like to send me an email, I can be reached at counterintuitive at protonmail dot com. Do you have questions? Would you like to tell me what you like about this project? Email me!
> 
> I also have an [ask blog](https://behind-the-gloves.tumblr.com/), a [writing blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/pallasite-writes), and a "P3 life" Tumblr [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/p3-life) with funny anecdotes. :)

A lot of people get mixed up on the different kinds of registration and licenses, so I wrote an essay clearing all that up.

  * Everyone who is a citizen of the Earth Alliance carries an EA identicard. These cards all look the same (the big ones that don’t fit in a wallet) - there is no separate Corps identicard (though that hasn’t stopped fandom from selling some on Ebay). Nor did it stop the _official merchandising_ team from producing wallet-sized Corps IDs as well! (There is no canon document that looks anything like the one they produced, but it’s cute anyway.)



         When someone (e.g. at customs) runs an EA identicard through a scanner, the screen displays information about the card’s holder. If someone is a telepath in the Corps, this comes up on the screen. Identicards also contain biometric data (specifically, data about the DNA of the person to whom the card was issued), so they’re hard to forge.

         In canon, we see Lyta boarding the station and presenting her identicard, and we see information about her identity (including that she is a telepath in the Corps) appear on the card reader’s screen.

         That identicards contain biometric data (DNA) linking them to their owners has been confirmed by JMS in an interview on Usenet.

  * Separate from this is Lyta's commercial license. This is a separate document - it is issued by the Corps, but it’s not a government issued form of identification. This is a professional license - we see Lyta's license on screen, and the date on it is the date she received her license to practice as a commercial telepath, _not the date she “entered the Corps”_ (which when she was a child, having been born in the Corps). This is another point of confusion in fandom.


  * "Registration with the Corps" is a separate concept - all children with registered telepath parents are automatically registered at birth, and laters are registered when they manifest/are found to be telepaths. P1s and P2s, who are not strong enough to be in the Corps, are nonetheless registered. Telepaths on sleepers are also registered. This registration is mandated by EA law, and is permanent. (That whole bit in _Soul Mates_ is canon error - I love you Peter David, but you just made that one up. Someone doesn't get "kicked out of the Corps" if something happens and he or she ceases to be telepathic... you know, suffer neurological damage _and have to go on disability_.)


  * Professional licenses (to work as business telepath, to work as a court telepath, etc.) function much like professional licenses in the normal world, and are renewed every ten years. (I figured that out because I did the math: I knew her birthdate and the fact that she’d get her license around age 19.)



         Telepaths have to pass exams to earn these licenses. Not everyone passes the program to become a commercial telepath. (Stay tuned for a story later on about a Corps "flunkie.")

         Telepaths found to have committed malpractice can lose their commercial licenses, but they are still in the Corps (for life). The Corps has to find them another job, because telepaths are guaranteed a job, health care, etc. for life, under EA law, and Corps regulations. (All telepaths... even flunkies! The Corps is a big "jobs program," I know.)

         (Later on, Lyta loses her right to work as a commercial telepath because she leaves the Corps - once she’s a rogue telepath, no company will hire her. Their insurance policies prevent them from doing so, due to [a bunch of complexities in EA tort law](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10478532).)


End file.
